Wow—it’s been so long already since my last recap! Haha. I
suppose even in America, with my laptop at my disposal and everything it’s
still tough for me to get motivated to keep a blog going. But here we go,
finally, recap #2!
So, back to ICUHS, on Friday at the end of our 3rd
week of outreach in Japan we held a Barbeque for the ICUHS students. After a
week of getting to go into classrooms, sharing testimonies, and getting to know
students, we planned this barbeque as a fun event to let students hang out with
us in a different setting from what we normally did.
Everything was done very last minute in typical Cru fashion, and yet God really worked out all the little details for us. To list a few examples; June is Japan’s rainy season, so many days we had poor or rainy weather, yet on this day we had perfect sunshine and warmth. It was a school holiday and many students had already planned other activities so we didn’t know how many students would show up—at least 22 students were there! The guys in our team had been having a harder time connecting with other high school dudes, so we were expecting only a few guys and yet almost as many guys came as girls!
At the BBQ I got to be one of the two MC’s, which is a role
I would never pick for myself, yet I enjoyed doing it. It also gave me an
opportunity to use more Japanese, as I ended up being the one who translated for
me and my partner MC. Of course, being at a park, we did all kinds of
activities, including playing soccer, Frisbee, and football, a relay-race, an
egg toss, a Japanese game we were taught by the students, freeze tag, and making
Banana Boats for dessert! Throughout all of it, we were able to just be real
with the students, and it was awesome to see friendships grow as we spent time
just playing together. For me, this was probably one of the best parts of our trip, mainly because it gave me an opportunity to get some exercise while also getting to know other guys. Like the futsal group at Waseda, playing sports makes it really natural and easy for me to get to know and become friends with people.
By the end of the time, we were all great friends, and it
was sad knowing that in just another week or so we wouldn’t be able to hang out
with them anymore. However, it was such a blessing to see those friendships
grow, and to be able to show them the love of Jesus, just by being with them
and having fun with them. The next Wednesday we had our usual “Let’s Talk” time
during their lunch period, and probably about 40 students showed up, including
all of the guys who had come to the BBQ! Praise God! It was further proof that
those friendships we had made and valued were real and valuable to the students
as well.
(If you’re one of the students in Japan and reading this I
hope you are doing well! Can’t wait till the day I’m back in Japan and we can
meet up again!)
Alright, I’ll wrap things up there for now! Hopefully it won’t
take me another two weeks or so till I post again, but let’s be honest—it very
well might. Haha!
God bless!
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